


Song of the Century

by ThunderStrikesTwice (ThunderDownOnGreenside)



Series: 100 Themes [1]
Category: Sengoku Basara
Genre: 100 Themes Challenge, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Datesana - Freeform, First Love, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sanadate, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2018-02-25 17:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2629388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderDownOnGreenside/pseuds/ThunderStrikesTwice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are only so many ways to describe something, but that doesn't make it any less daunting. </p><p>(100 Themes Datesana/Sanadate challenge!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter the era of the greatest rivalry of all time.

When they first met on the battlefield, the whole world felt it.

 

 

It was instantaneous, a sudden, profound change, and the entirety of nature held its eternal breath as the fated pair drew near, curious and impatient and destined for greatness. Red and blue circled each other, a masterful display of everlasting contrasts, each armor-laden step another mark in the illustrious scrolls of legendary history.

 

 

When they spoke, it was with careless fervor, the heat of battle entrenching them within its grip and spurring them on. Words were exchanged like parries and blows, some barbed with a grin, others launched with a determined frown. Already it was shaping up to be something monumental; already a new age was beginning to dawn.

 

 

That first step was cataclysmic, a grand trigger in the scale of life. Paths would forever be altered, futures would never again see the same light, all because of two men. Two warriors.

 

 

Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune.

 

 

Enter the era of the greatest rivalry of all time. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

When they first met outside the battlefield, the world was quiet.

 

 

A careful breeze stirred carefully tended gardens around them, but other than that, it was silent. Soft. No screaming, no declarations of superiority, no echoing clashes of weapons. It was a night for peace, a time of brief respite and celebration, a moment of calm in the surrounding sea of warfare.

 

 

They were different when they weren’t fighting, more in some ways than others. Masamune seemed softer around the edges in his loosely draped hakama, and Yukimura looked infinitely less brash without his headband and vibrant red armor. It was a sobering realization for both of them, the age-old lesson of knowing your enemy.

 

 

Still, they were both the same men, and they had other ways of getting acquainted with each other that didn’t involve blades or spears or fists.

 

 

Side by side, sitting under a sakura tree, they engaged in a different kind of introduction, one that would hold sway over them both even after the next battle had ended.

 

 


	2. Complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He'd never asked for this.

 

 

Fighting is easy. It makes sense. Individual battles more so _(swing a couple blades, strut your stuff, all in a day’s work)_ but even longer skirmishes have an edge of delightful simplicity.

 

 

Wars are more complex. They involve critical thinking, endless strategizing, constant vigilance even when you’re not on the battlefield. _(When he thinks of war, he thinks of sleepless nights spent studying maps by candlelight, the smell of scroll paper and tea, the cool gaze of the moon far overhead, among other things.)_ War is fear and pain and suffering, only tempered by the distant glow of victory and only worth it if you reach it.

 

 

Diplomacy is hard as shit. Fuck fighting for a thousand years over territory and supremacy, negotiations are what keep him up at night. He’d sooner forsake his land and wander as a vagabond than put up with all that political bullshit like Kojuurou does.

 

 

Date Masamune knows these things, he’s aware of how they work and (in the case of diplomatic affairs) how to avoid them. But there’s one thing that he wasn’t prepared for, he hadn’t seen coming, and now it’s here, insistent, burning, endlessly hovering at the corners of his existence.

 

 

He’d never asked for this.

 

 

_(But oh Gods did he want it.)_

 

 

Rivalry is…indescribable. It’s easier than fighting, more complex than warfare, and harder than even the most dead-end of diplomatic endeavors. Crossing weapons with Yukimura sets his soul ablaze, it leaves him sleepless for nights on end and his very being longs for the next moment with their paths will align again.

 

 

Friendship is a funny thing. A rare thing too, if he may say so, an odd blend of camaraderie and affection, something that isn’t filial but still platonic. Once, he would’ve said that Kojuurou was the closest thing that he had to a friend, and in a sense, that’s still true. Technically speaking, his retainer is not his friend. _(Friend is too casual, it doesn’t sum up the magnitude of all that they’ve been through together, all that the older man has done for him.)_ What you call it doesn’t mean anything.

 

 

And then there’s love of the romantic sort, whatever the hell that is. That’s what’s most complicated, certainly; you don’t know when it will strike, where it’ll come from, what it’ll do. You just have to know that it’s there and do your best to avoid it.

 

 

As a warlord, he has no time for that. Let the others do what they want, the Maeda clan in Kaga, Lord Uesugi in Echigo, even that insufferable vagabond. It was none of his business and none of his concern, and he wants to keep it that way.

 

 

_(After all, who could forget the tragedy of Lady Oichi and her dear husband, Lord Nagamasa?)_

 

 

And yet… Complicated as it is, he thinks that he may have found it for himself.

 

 

The feelings he gets _(Burning soul, endless waltz, a deadly battle to the death simply for the sheer joy of it)_ is beyond compare, running even stronger now than it had when they’d first met. He can’t get away from it, can’t forget it, can’t sleep without Yukimura’s voice in his head or his touch on his fingertips. He doesn’t breathe a word of this to anyone, but he thinks that some of them might know anyway. _(They do.)_

 

 

It’s too complicated for him; it makes diplomacy look like sparring.

 

 

He’d never asked for this.

 

 

_(But he wants it anyway.)_

 

 


	3. Making History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> History would never find another chance like this one.

It was funny because if you asked mostly anyone, they could tell you.

 

 

Not always specifics, mind you, like names and times and lands, but they knew their faces. They felt the determination that rolled off of them in tangible waves, the potent thrill that leapt through the air like an electric current when they were in close proximity. It was impossible to deny, just as it always had been: there was something special about those two, something that would never cease to exist, something that would dance just as eternally as the sun and the moon.

 

 

Yes, mostly everyone knew the battles, but that wasn’t the part that he had set out to keep. No, he was determined to preserve the softer half of the legend, the man behind the blades and the boy who wielded his spears. There’s more to a war than just the battles; likewise, there was more to them than the same.

 

 

_(There was so much to write down, so much to cut out, so much to think about. What memories to keep and what long days to throw away, which moments to treat with care and which incidents to simply ignore.)_

 

 

In the end, he’d settled for painting, because for both of them, actions had always spoken louder than words ever could.

 

 

_(He remembered witnessing things that he’d never expected to see for the rest of his lifetime - kisses, embraces, affectionate touches, all for the sake of simply doing it - from the both of them, completely natural and utterly effortless. At the time, he’d been almost terrified. Now, he knew that he’d have to memorize it before it was all gone forever.)_

 

 

Because in the end, there would never be anyone else like them ever again, no one who could battle as intensely, work together so perfectly, and love so passionately. History would never find another chance like this one.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Hey, have we met before? I’m the new exchange student, Sanada Genjiro Yukimura! Forgive me if I’m wrong, but you are very familiar to me.”

 

 

“Heh. I think I’d remember a face like yours. But maybe you’re right, cause I’m feeling a connection here. Name’s Date Masamune. Nice to meet ya.”

 

 

But then again, history always repeats itself.

 

 


	4. Rivalry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Then there was Sanada Yukimura and it all. Made. Sense.

 

 

Essentially, it’s insane. He’s seen it a million times before, on varying scales, and it never gets any better. He sees it between captains in his army, the way they butt heads and draw their swords on each other without a single word having to be exchanged. He saw it in Chosokabe when he spoke of Motonari, that longing to go into battle against a foe that was his equal, that shameless desire to pursue an opponent to the ends of the earth. And of course, you couldn’t miss it when it came to the War God and the Tiger of Kai. They’re all rivalries, plain and simple, and they’re all insane.

 

 

Once, he thought that he’d never understand it, but then...but then.

 

 

Then there was Sanada Yukimura and it all. Made. Sense.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Hey, **Red**! We gonna get this show on the road or what?” Masamune is impatient, arms crossed over his chest and stance border lining predatory. He needs this today, whether Yukimura likes it or not, and he intends to make the best of this opportunity. “I don’t have time for any bullshit from you, **ya see**?”

 

 

Yukimura frowns at him disapprovingly, spears still strapped to his back but body strung tight for the potential attack.

 

 

“There is no need for such coarseness, Lord Masamune.” He admonishes, eyebrows slanting down in additional warning. “You do not have to goad me into a fight. Our rivalry speaks beyond that.”

 

 

There it is again. That rivalry thing. That’s what it is, really, but…

 

 

“That so?” Masamune grins, fingers twitching next to his swords. “Then **show me** , Sanada Yukimura. Let’s take a look at this rivalry thing we’ve got going on.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Essentially, it’s illogical. According to Yukimura, your greatest rival is also your greatest friend, your greatest ally. When Masamune looks at it, that doesn’t really make much sense. Maybe for old man Takeda and the War God, and even a little bit for those two stubborn captains, but it doesn’t work that way for those damn pirates and it certainly doesn’t work that way for he and Yukimura. The Tiger Cub is not his friend, nor his ally...

 

 

Is he?

 

 

That’s where it gets frustrating, not to mention stupid. This shouldn’t be complicated, yet here it is…plaguing him when he should be sleeping, invading his dreams like some kind of damned adrenaline rush. It pesters him during training, bothers him during planning, downright _shadows_ him when he goes out like it’s some kind of thrice-damned ninja.

 

 

Yukimura is not his friend...they are rivals, not friends...

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

One spar, one talk, and one bottle of sake later, Masamune realizes that Yukimura is _everything_.

 

 


	5. Unbreakable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Remember kid, you and me still got some unfinished business. So don’t go losing to anyone until then."
> 
> “Alright. But you had better not lose, either.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey this scene almost killed me

 

 

The sun was setting, casting a golden-orange hue across the Takeda compound. He felt sore, but satisfied; in the end, the great contest of men had gone off without a hitch, and he was very pleased with the progress he had made today. He felt closer to being a warrior than he ever had before, and as he stepped through the sliding doors into the warm rays of the sun, he was almost giddy with the sheer joy of it.

 

 

_(It’s raining; the sky is pouring tears and there’s a pain in his chest, radiating through every limb that still has feeling. He can’t breathe, can’t hang on. Distantly, he hears a scream of rage.)_

 

 

When he found him at last, Masamune was standing outside, still in full battle armor. His stance was relaxed, but he was looking right at him, eyes blazing from across the space between them.

 

 

_(He feels hands at his chest, scrabbling frantically at the sparse armor there. Hands that grip at the front of his jacket, hands that shake him by the shoulders and hold him tightly. Hands that grip the underside of his chin as they force his head to turn, to look up, to stare his destiny in the face.)_

 

 

"Remember kid, you and me still got some unfinished business. So don’t go losing to anyone until then."

 

 

“Alright. But you had better not lose, either.”

 

 

They stood face to face at long last, having fulfilled their fighting desires for the day. He longed to express the depth of his appreciation for his rival’s existence, the fact that they had found each other before it was too late to live out their potential-

 

 

But of course, it is best to save that for the victory.

 

 

And how is that supposed to end? It’s up to them, of course, but they gave their lives to each other, and nothing will break that now.

 

 

_(“Look at me!” Masamune growls, fingers rough under Yukimura’s chin. “ **Fuck** , what the hell are you doing? Dammit **Red** , you can’t do this to me!”)_

 

 

A promise is a promise, after all, especially one that is sworn in such a way.

 

 

_(Angrily, Masamune makes to shake him again but stops, hands instead moving to cover the gaping wound in the other’s chest. Yukimura can’t breathe, can only stare listlessly at his eternal rival, bloodstained lips parting in an effort to speak.)_

 

 

Unbreakable by deceit.

 

 

_(“L-Lord…Masamune…” His gasp is a quiet one, but the other reaches out all the same, gripping Yukimura’s hand in his own.)_

 

 

Unbreakable by change.

 

 

_(“Yukimura…” It’s a slip-up, a mistake in a moment of overwhelming weakness, but no one gives a damn right now anyway. Masamune shakes his head, leaning in closer and glaring down at him. “No. **No**. You aren’t…you can’t fucking do this, **Red**! We fucking swore on this, you of all people should-!”)_

 

 

Unbreakable by hate.

 

 

_(“We’ll have another chance, I am…sure of it.” Yukimura manages a smile, vision hazing over so that Masamune’s eyes are like bright stars in the distant, darkened sky. “My only regret…is not f-finishing this with you. I will…I will forever await…the next time we meet. Until then…”)_

 

 

Unbreakable by pain.

 

 

_(“No. **No!** Listen to me, Sanada - **fuck,** look at me! Don’t you go dying on me! I haven’t even - **Red!** Yukimura! **Yukimura!”** )_

 

 

Unbreakable by time.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The sun is setting, casting a golden-orange hue across the field. From far away, Masamune sees him - same hair, same form, same brilliant spirit. The same burning soul, the same light that drew him in the first time.

 

 

_(“We’ll get our second chance…that’s my promise to you. And I’m not gonna break it.”)_

 

 

**Unbreakable by death.**

 

 

“Masamune?”

 

 


	6. Obsession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wait.
> 
> What?

As of now and judging by his current status of affairs, Masamune wants two things.

 

 

One: he wants to go eat dinner because goddamn he is _starving_  to death _right this damn second_ and he can fucking _smell_ the food from here.

 

 

And two: he wants Kojuurou to shut up about his supposed “obsession” with one Sanada Genjiro Yukimura, mostly so he can go eat. But also because it’s getting annoying. Seriously, they’ve broached this topic at _least_ twenty-seven thousand times in the last week. To put it simply, Masamune is getting a little (read: _a lot_ ) fed up with the whole thing.

 

 

So when he makes the move to leave and his steward interjects with a perfectly respectful “Lord Masamune, if I may,” the One-Eyed Dragon decides that he’s had quite enough.

 

 

“If I may, Kojuurou, I would like you to **shut up**.” He seethes, whirling around in a dramatic flair of white and blue cloth. “I’m fucking starving right now and I don’t need to hear this bullshit from you. Can it!”

 

 

Masamune proceeds to stomp off, muttering angrily to himself and heaven help any servants who are unfortunate enough to get in his way. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

He’s not obsessed. He’s _not_ obsessed! He doesn’t think about Yukimura all the time _(flashing steel, a burst of red)_ , it’s not like he sees him everywhere or anything _(A long brown ponytail whipping around the corner)_ and he certainly doesn’t like him enough to be obsessed with him! _(The strong timbre of his voice, his youthful features, the strength that vibrates in his muscles when he pushes back against Masamune’s blades.)_

 

 

He isn’t. Masamune frowns at the ceiling, hair strewn out on the flat pillow under his head. He can’t be. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s foolish and frivolous and _sooooo_ unlike him. _(His radiant smile, his pretty brown eyes, the way his hair shines like silk even on the battlefield.)_ Besides, even if he didn’t mind him _(Oh, who is he kidding? He can’t get enough of the kid)_ it’s not like he would ever be attracted to him enough to be obsessed with him.

 

 

Wait.

 

 

_What?_

 

 

Masamune sits up suddenly, one hand fisted tightly in his sheets. _Shit_. There’s no way. He isn’t…he can’t be…

 

 

_(Long hair undone and spilled over bronzed shoulders, head thrown back to expose his throat, mouths melded together in a messy, passionate kiss as he pushes forward, drawing a cry out of Yukimura-)_

 

 

Masamune’s eye goes huge.

 

 

Kojuurou was right, **_goddammit!_**


	7. Eternity

They’re never quiet.

 

Masamune is the growling type, fearless and commanding, never hesitant in his movements. Yukimura snarls right back, shouting sometimes if needed; and then crying out when they finally come together, backed precariously against a wall, tumbled down on the floor. Masamune tries not to let go as the other does, but he rarely ever manages to keep control over himself. That’s just what Yukimura does to him, after all.

 

They’re never subdued, either.

 

They always push, shoving mercilessly at the other, tearing at clothes and sometimes armor and, rarer still, weapons. (Masamune gets his lip split by Yukimura’s teeth.) They hit the floor hard, one on top of the other, for now unwilling to relinquish any semblance of power that they may hold over the other. (Yukimura tastes blood when he kisses him.) Even when they’re gentler, softer, less inclined to tussle and roll and fight, there’s still so much passion that a sobering moment of clarity is never achieved.

 

(They don’t need that; the fire makes everything bright enough, the lightning arcs through their veins and gives them more vision in passion than they could ever hope to reach in sobriety.)

 

The first many times, Masamune takes the lead.

 

Yukimura is a soldier, but in many ways, he lacks experience. Masamune remains patient, uncharacteristically careful, rough but every bit as reassuring and his younger lover learns, _oh_ , does he learn.

 

After that, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes Yukimura pins his lover down to the floor, fingers wrapped around strong wrists and mouth crushed against someone else’s. Other nights (or days, or whenever) Masamune will hold his rival tightly, trap him against the suddenly fragile walls, and kiss him so fervently that it almost makes Yukimura wonder if they’ll live to see tomorrow.

 

_Tomorrow._

 

As rivals, the promise of eternity lives within them...

 

But as men of war, eternity is merely a quiet prayer whispered in darkness, a trembling cry resonating in one’s chest, an oath sworn between two people who are destined - no matter what eternity means to them in this life - to be together forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to get fairly long, so I'm breaking it in half. The first fifty themes will be here, and the next fifty themes will be on another story file. When I get there...someday... Please enjoy!


End file.
